The name or security ID (SID) of the domain specified is inconsistent with the trust information for that domain

Most of us work on Vmware Workstation to build our Research Labs for testing purposes. A very handy feature that Vmware has introduced into its Workstaion range of product is CLONING- relieving you from the pain of recreating a system once again instead just clone the system and move ahead.

A very common issue noticed while cloning a system generally on Windows Server 2003 is the error

The name or security ID (SID) of the domain specified is inconsistent with the trust information for that domain

And hence when you try to logon to this system it throws out this error to you.

Cause the error prompts at the logon screen hence it looks very difficult to handle but can be resolved in a few steps.

Reason:

Every cloned system has an identical Computer Security Identifier (SID). This fact compromises security in Workgroup environments, and removable media security can also be compromised in networks with multiple identical computer SIDs.

Steps:

Logon using the Local Admin account

Install the NEWSid.exe file from the following location  http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/NewSID.shtml

Run the NEWSID.exe and it will automatically perform the required steps. It also gives you an option to

1. chose a custom SID or a random one
2. A hostname for the clone

That’s it you're ready to rumble.

NEWSid was a Sysinternals Project which was later retired. But it WORKS so I can never forget it as in case of WICU

Note: NewSID has been retired and is no longer available for download. Please see Mark Russinovich’s blog post: NewSID Retirement and the Machine SID Duplication Myth